Ducks Are Silent Rather Than Mighty

Published 7:00 pm, Monday, May 26, 2003

The tape that wrapped Marc Chouinard's wrist said "Just Win." The note in his head kept telling him "Just Shoot" because none of his teammates would.

When Chouinard has a team-high four shots, the Anaheim Mighty Ducks know they are in trouble. And they surely were against the defensive lockdown the New Jersey Devils put them through.

The Ducks were playing for the first time in 11 days, and their already anemic offense showed a whole lot of rust. Anaheim fired just eight shots on goal through 40 minutes and finished with 16 in a 3-0 loss to the Devils in the opener of the Stanley Cup finals on Tuesday night.

"I think each line has a role and we're obviously not one that scores some goals or gets two or three goals a game," said Chouinard, who centered Jason Krog and Dan Bylsma _ a trio that registered five shots. "If we give some energy to the team and make a few good cycles, and play in their zone then we feel that we did our job."

And they did.

Chouinard said that coach Mike Babcock came to them during practice and told them to get pucks on net and keep it moving. If Babcock spread that word around, only this line got the message.

Paul Kariya led the Ducks in scoring this season, but the Devils held him _ and many others _ to just one shot or less. Anaheim's best scoring chance might have been in the opening five minutes when Petr Sykora, formerly of the Devils, hit the right post with a drive from above the left circle.

"We got here as a team and that's the way we're going to play," said forward Rob Niedermayer, who had two first-period shots. "We have all four lines going. Everyone in this room knows we have to be better."

Sykora had a team-high 34 goals during the season, but a mere two shots against his ex-teammates. Adam Oates was held without a shot. He nearly scored midway through the third period, but his attempt at a seemingly open net was pushed right into sprawling goalie Martin Brodeur.

"We not only need shots, we have to put more pucks at the net," Niedermayer said. "We have to get some people in front of Marty, too. They're doing a good job of boxing us out and we have to fight through that."

He was not one blaming the time off for the lack of production.

"I don't think that had anything to do with it," Niedermayer said. "In the first period we came out and I thought it was pretty even."

Chouinard was playing in only his ninth playoff game this year, having been scratched in the previous five games _ all Anaheim victories. When he was reinserted into the lineup against New Jersey it wasn't with the hope that he would help Anaheim's offense that mustered two goals or fewer in six of the previous eight games.

"One of our objectives was to cause a lot of traffic at Brodeur," Chouinard said. "All they credit to them, they blocked us. They didn't give us many shots to shoot the puck."

The center had only seven points in the regular season and 52 shots. He managed more than two shots in just two of 70 games but finished this one with a team-high four _ doubling his playoff total.

The third period was Anaheim's best when they recorded eight shots. That's when Sykora got his two pucks in on Brodeur, and Mike Leclerc also had two shots. It wasn't enough to prevent the Ducks from being shut out for the first time in these playoffs.

"I knew it was going to be tough to generate offense against them," Babcock said. "They did a real good job, stuck on the puck, played hard defensively. I don't think we were very quick."

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Anaheim will need to pick it up in Game 2 after losing for just the third time in the playoffs. The Mighty Ducks have been held to two goals or fewer in nine of their 15 games this postseason and are behind in a series for the first time.